Medical emergencies generally occur with little warning and even less preparation. Under the best of circumstances a patient is conscious, alert and well able to provide his/her medical information. In reality, many patients are unconscious or so physically impaired that he or she is unable to provide such basic information as name, age, complaints, allergies and/or other relevant medical history, all of which will impact his/her treatment. Medical identification (“medical id”) bracelets have been popularized as a solution for providing an alert to emergency medical professionals of known medical conditions, e.g. diabetes, asthma, etc. These medical id bracelets are limited in the amount of information that is displayed thereon. Other contributing factors, e.g. knowledge of the patient's current list of medication(s) may be relevant to treatment but not readily available. This lack of knowledge can compromise the patient's treatment. Thus, there is a need for an apparatus, system and method for providing a patient's medical information in a simple, convenient and accessible manner without compromising the confidentiality of the same.
Similar issues exist with regards to filling prescriptions where lack of information can compromise a patient's treatment. As such, patients are advised to fill all their prescriptions at the same pharmacy or at least a pharmacy within the same pharmacy chain so that there is continuity of treatment and access to a patient's prescription history. In this manner, a pharmacist or prescription software program can detect drug interactions, or abuses of controlled medications and the like. Except convenience, availability and prices are generally the controlling factors in a patient's choice of pharmacies. This places the pharmacist filling the most current prescription at a disadvantage as he/she may have incomplete information as to prior medications and/or any potentially adverse drug interactions. Pharmacists cannot rely on patient's memories as patients forget or have difficulty pronouncing and/or spelling their name of the medication(s) and may opt to take an educated guess which is unreliable for its lack of precision. Therefore, it would be helpful for a patient's current list of medications, i.e. prescription history, to be portable and available to any registered pharmacist for reference and review on an as needed basis.
Accordingly, the various embodiments and disclosures described herein satisfies these long felt needs and solves the limitations of the prior art in a new and novel manner.